o2manyfish
Valuable Member
Hello Everyone,
We setup our 750g tank just two years ago, we have close to 1000lbs of live rock in the tank. About 60% was 20+ year old rock that got a Citric Acid bath and was reset. The remaining liverock was from my established reeftanks going back to 1989.
Our overall system is 1500g, and there is a literal TON of liverock in the system.
We setup the 750g two years ago. More that a year ago I started hearing clicking sounds. Two friends that do service heard it and said it was a pistol shrimp. But I thought otherwise. We have over 100 fish in the tank of all sizes. We add clean up crew members in groups of 50-100pcs. Keeping track of everyone in this size tank is impossible.
Three weeks ago while sitting infront of the tank I saw a black body slither between some rocks. I've kept peacocks and giant mantis over the years and was very aware of what caught my eye.
I built a trap using a small gatorade bottle. The typical 1L water bottle the opening was too small. The one I spotted was 4". I baited the trap with supermarket shrimp.
48 hours later I spotted the Mantis under a rock in the front of the tank. I moved the trap.
The trap has caught a bunch of pseudochromis and a Bangai.
On Saturday night after dinner I walked past the tank and the lil bugger was out of the rockwork and leaving up against the front edge to the tank. What I thought was a black mantis was actually a dark midnight blue. The tip of the head to the body is tapered, the tip being much smaller than the torso.
I grabbed a stool and a net and easily scooped him up, but as the net was coming out the tank he flew out the top and back into the rock work.
I need some help with ideas how to catch this guy. The tank has 130 fish from neon gobies to achilles tangs. There are 1" crocea clams to 6" maxima clams. THere are tiny red leg hermits, giant 6" sally lighfoot crabs, emerald crabs, harlequin shrimp, cleaner shrimp, fire shrimp - that have been in the tank for 2 years. I recently added a pair of arrow crabs but haven't seen them since the 3rd day they went in. But that doesn't mean much in this size tank.
Everything a Mantis likes to eat is in abundance in the tank. So how am I going to entice him to come out for something special inside a plastic bottle.
Thanks for you thoughts and ideas.
Dave B
You can watch for the mantis on our live webcam --- o2manyfish.com It's got an optical zoom, so if he shoots out of the rocks you can follow him around the tank and zoom in to count the # of eyes.
We setup our 750g tank just two years ago, we have close to 1000lbs of live rock in the tank. About 60% was 20+ year old rock that got a Citric Acid bath and was reset. The remaining liverock was from my established reeftanks going back to 1989.
Our overall system is 1500g, and there is a literal TON of liverock in the system.
We setup the 750g two years ago. More that a year ago I started hearing clicking sounds. Two friends that do service heard it and said it was a pistol shrimp. But I thought otherwise. We have over 100 fish in the tank of all sizes. We add clean up crew members in groups of 50-100pcs. Keeping track of everyone in this size tank is impossible.
Three weeks ago while sitting infront of the tank I saw a black body slither between some rocks. I've kept peacocks and giant mantis over the years and was very aware of what caught my eye.
I built a trap using a small gatorade bottle. The typical 1L water bottle the opening was too small. The one I spotted was 4". I baited the trap with supermarket shrimp.
48 hours later I spotted the Mantis under a rock in the front of the tank. I moved the trap.
The trap has caught a bunch of pseudochromis and a Bangai.
On Saturday night after dinner I walked past the tank and the lil bugger was out of the rockwork and leaving up against the front edge to the tank. What I thought was a black mantis was actually a dark midnight blue. The tip of the head to the body is tapered, the tip being much smaller than the torso.
I grabbed a stool and a net and easily scooped him up, but as the net was coming out the tank he flew out the top and back into the rock work.
I need some help with ideas how to catch this guy. The tank has 130 fish from neon gobies to achilles tangs. There are 1" crocea clams to 6" maxima clams. THere are tiny red leg hermits, giant 6" sally lighfoot crabs, emerald crabs, harlequin shrimp, cleaner shrimp, fire shrimp - that have been in the tank for 2 years. I recently added a pair of arrow crabs but haven't seen them since the 3rd day they went in. But that doesn't mean much in this size tank.
Everything a Mantis likes to eat is in abundance in the tank. So how am I going to entice him to come out for something special inside a plastic bottle.
Thanks for you thoughts and ideas.
Dave B
You can watch for the mantis on our live webcam --- o2manyfish.com It's got an optical zoom, so if he shoots out of the rocks you can follow him around the tank and zoom in to count the # of eyes.
If you happen to get any pics, I’d love to id him! But I’d just leave him personally lol I have personally never had any go after anything bigger than them… so I doubt he did anything to the arrow crabs
